Located in Benton Harbor, Michigan where the Heathkits were made, RTO Electronics is owned and operated by Ron Oxley, WM8Z. We have been servicing Heathkit amateur radio equipment here at RTO since 1990 when Ron left the Heath Company after 12 years in the service department. While we specialize in repairing the Heathkit ham gear we can also service other brands. We also stock many of the repair parts needed to service the Heathkits and we can supply many of the original Heathkit manuals for ham gear.

We are suspending all repairs until further notice. Due to various circumstances we can not accept any units for repair at this time. Due to old age, health, etc. it may be time to close the doors. I want to thank all of you who have supported me with your business over the past 30 or so years. Unfortunately nothing lasts forever, including me and Heathkits.

"Heathkits were really great. Heathkits were these products that you would buy in kit form. You actually paid more money for them than if you just went and bought the finished product if it was available. These Heathkits would come with these detailed manuals about how to put this thing together and all the parts would be laid out in a certain way and color coded. You'd actually build this thing yourself. I would say that this gave one several things. It gave one a understanding of what was inside a finished product and how it worked because it would include a theory of operation but maybe even more importantly it gave one the sense that one could build the things that one saw around oneself in the universe. These things were not mysteries anymore. I mean you looked at a television set you would think that "I haven't built one of those but I could. There's one of those in the Heathkit catalog and I've built two other Heathkits so I could build that." Things became much more clear that they were the results of human creation not these magical things that just appeared in one's environment that one had no knowledge of their interiors. It gave a tremendous level of self-confidence, that through exploration and learning one could understand seemingly very complex things in one's environment. My childhood was very fortunate in that way."